Director

Yulene Olaizola

Mexico, France | 2020 | 96 min | Spanish, Maya, English, Creol

• Producer Pablo Zimbrón Alva, Ruben Imaz, Yulene Olaizola, Birgit Kemner, Philippe Gompel, Oscar Ruiz Navia
• Production Company Malacosa Cine, Manny Films, Varios Lobos, Contravía Films, Zoología Fantástica, Barraca Producciones
• Screenplay Yulene Olaizola, Rubén Imaz
• Cinematography Sofia Oggioni
• Editing Rubén Imaz, Yulene Olaizola, Israel Cárdenas, Pablo Chea
• Sound José Miguel Enríquez Rivaud
• Cast Indira Andrewin, Gilberto Barraza, Mariano Tun Xool, Lázaro Gabino Rodríguez, Eligio Meléndez
• Contacts

  Varios Lobos

  pablo@varioslobos.com

About the Film

Tragic Jungle is a sensational movie with chapters set in the border region between Mexico and the British Honduras (now Belize). The tropical rainforest is the scene. With a slow rhythm, a careful visual formation, ruthless characters, and a story that involves movement, adventures and suspense, we proceed into a deep, spiritual film, unique in its vision. It lingers for a while in the audience's minds, long after leaving the theater. In her fifth directing experience, Mexican director Yulene Olaizola takes us into the depths of nature, with creatures sleeping within the details, souls nestling in nature’slap, and trees waiting for someone to extract from them what they hide as a secret of existence.

It is the thing—the secret—that the film abounds in, as well as the mystery and the smell of death that permeates the atmosphere.

The events take place in the 20s, although it would be difficult to notice these details had it not been for the tale that takes us back to a colonial era and centers on the character of a Belizean girl named Agnes (Indira Rubie Adrew in in a more than remarkable performance). We follow her and her sister’s escape from an English landowner whom she refuses to marry. Following that rejection, a chase ensues, throwing Agnes into the arms of a group of Mexican workers extracting gum from the trees. Her relationship with them is problematic and remains that way, rendering each one of them her savior and jailer at the same time. They believe that Agnes is one of the Mayan demons, and that her beauty will lead them to their death. The film is saturated with Sufist moments, and takes a direction it would not have taken had the director not been busy giving the story philosophical dimensions inspired by Mayan myths. As for the forest, it is the main protagonist that does not let any violation go without revenge. She is the compassionate and ruthless mother, powerful enough to perform miracles.

Hauvick Habéshian